Blog Archives

Disrupting universities

11/30/2014

The Value of Disruption
According to Clayton Christensen the really significant changes in any domain are disruptive. In his view 'to play its indispensable function function in the new competitive environment, the typical university must change more quickly and more fundamentally than it has been doing'(1).

Disrupting the status quo in order to do something that is significantly different to what has been done before is an important objective of creativity. Sadly, most universities don't like disruption, in fact they are positively risk averse: so all too often, even if we have a good idea, we play safe and shy away from possible criticism and carry on doing what we have always done because its easier and we are less likely to get criticised. Trying to be creative in order to innovate involves courage and conviction, energy, effort and time, quite apart from the ideas and vision that drives the process.

Because of these organisational cultural pressures, for many academics, the excitement of learning and the excitement of teaching and helping others learn is not always visible. But does it have to be this way? What are the consequences for us, our learners and our society as a whole if we do not take the risks associated with disrupting ourselves and the current education we provide in order to strive for something better?

I am an academic developer a role which contains within it the seeds of educational disruption - in order to advance understanding and practice! But those seeds have to be planted and helped to grow. I try to fulfil this role by teaching on programmes that lead to teaching qualifications in Higher Education, further CPD programmes, facilitating workshops and open courses but also through supporting individual colleagues and teams. At the heart of my approach is building relationships and trust with colleagues and working in partnership through modelling practices, immersion and co-creation. This, becomes a powerful vehicle for change. A while back I asked a new colleague what he loves about his job as an academic. The answer came as no surprise to me. He said research. My response was "you will need to learn to love teaching too". And my big question is how can we achieve this. How can we help academics use their love for research and experimentation and learn to love teaching? Is the answer in the question perhaps? If academics use their curiosity to make new discoveries through experimentation and research, what stops them using their curiosity to create stimulating, playful and imaginative learning experiences for them and their students?

I wanted to find out so I developed a special 'Creativity for Learning' unit for the Postgraduate Certificate and the Masters in Academic Practice within the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University. Its purpose is to introduce academics to the concept of creativity through immersion into playful approaches to learning and development. While some might not recognise the value of creating such a unit and would argue that creativity needs to underpin all our activities and a programme more holistically, I went ahead with the creation of this unit to explore if this unit could act as a 'greenhouse' for growing creative action within an academic community by providing a safe and collegial space and unzip academics' minds and provide food for thought around how they could make changes in their practices to awaken their own and students creative curiosity and discover fresh excitement. By giving participants the permission, freedom and encouragement to experiment I will be interested to see what emerges and if they change their understandings and conceptions of what creativity means to them in the context of their own learning and teaching when they disrupt their own practice.

An Open Learning Ecology
In addition to running the course internally within MMU we are also offering an open version linked to this through the Peer to Peer University (p2pu) in collaboration with Lifewide Education. We decided to do this as it will encourage others to join in and therefore extend and enrich our conversations and debates around creativity in Higher Education even further. The Creativity for Learning in Higher Education open learning ecology within p2pu is currently under construction and there will be multiple exciting ways to get involved, share experiences and make new discoveries. Have a look at https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2615/creativity-for-learning-in-higher-education/ to get a taste of what is going to start unfolding from the end of January 2015.

Collaborative inquiry
As my questions around conceptions of creativity in the context of learning and teaching are important and fundamental for current and future practices, I teamed up with Prof. Norman Jackson who has spent many years trying to understand what creativity means in higher education and encouraging universities to do more to nurture students' creative development. Much of this work is now available as an open resource on his new Creative Academic website http://www.creativeacademic.uk Norman has influenced my thinking and practice and provided a window into the world of creative and playful teaching that underpins my teaching philosophy and practice. This project will help us gain a deeper insight into the conceptions of creativity as expressed and lived by academics and also provide a useful vehicle for my own further professional development through collaborative research.

The Creative Academic project aims to explore conceptions of personal creativity in the context of learning and teaching in higher education. The project will investigate:

1) The beliefs, attitudes and values of higher education teachers in respect of their own creativity and its importance to their personal and professional identity

2) The beliefs, attitudes and values of higher education teachers in respect of their understandings of what creativity means in the context of their teaching, their curricular designs and students' development.

3) The ways in which higher education teachers encourage students to use and develop their creativity.

4) The extent to which understandings and meanings of creativity are enhanced or changed as participants try to implement their creative ideas.

While part of the project will be conducted with colleagues in my own institution and help us gain an insight into our evolving conceptions of creativity as we engage in the Creativity for Learning unit, the collaborative inquiry is also open to any higher education teacher who wants to participate. You can join us by registering your interest and completing the on-line questionnaire at http://www.creativeacademic.uk/questionnaires.html

Source
1) Christensen C. M. and Eyring H. J. (2011) The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out

Chrissie Nerrantzi
Manchester Metropolitan University

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The Tangible and the Infinite: The Lifewide Learning Potential and benefit of a Career Sabbatical

11/15/2014

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A period of sabbatical is a luxury afforded to academic staff working in universities in some parts of the world. I am fortunate to work at a research-intensive, high performing university in New Zealand which grants sabbatical, or more precisely, Research and Study Leave, to academic staff fulfilling the application criteria. The Research and Study Leave period is generally six months but in exceptional circumstances, an applicant may be granted a shorter or longer time period. My application fell into the latter category and I was granted two consecutive six month periods of Research and Study Leave. I feel enormously privileged.

A sabbatical or Research and Study Leave period is a time for renewal and rejuvenation. Used well, it is an opportunity for mental and physical renewal and exploration of creative pursuits.

In applying for Research and Study Leave, the university requires quite detailed information on the goals of the applicant, expected tangible outcomes, benefits to the awarding university, personal and professional development. The Leave is a luxury but certainly not a holiday!

In my case my overarching goal at the outset of my leave was to carry out research on leadership in higher education with the longer term aim of publishing a single authored book on this topic. This was a new research focus for me. Leadership in higher education is an under-researched topic. As universities are constantly being challenged to change and almost re-invent themselves to align with shifting conceptions of the purpose of higher education, it is time to explore leadership in higher education, to take our role as role models seriously and to understand how to build leadership capability and capacity, as a critical aspect of our social responsibility.

Suffice to say that I have lived up to my expectations of tangible outcomes in the form of publications, manuscripts submitted, work in progress. I have been prolific in peer reviewing for several journals. I have been offered and accepted invitations to co-publish and co-edit chapters and books on the topic of Leadership in Higher Education. I was fortunate enough to be given permission by my Dean to attend a Leadership Development Programme offered by the Centre for Creative Leadership. I have pushed myself way beyond my comfort zone in giving keynotes and presentations at conferences that are new to me. I was voted on to the position of Vice President of HETL, the International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association (www.hetl.org), I have given seminars at several universities in the UK. I have networked extensively through email, social media, Skype and met with senior managers of universities.

I feel a sense of pride in my achievements. I have pushed myself forward professionally and personally and I have extended not just my individual professional impact but also as an ambassador, the reputation of my university.

I can lay out the tangible outcomes of my Research and Study Leave easily. What it is not possible to quantify are the intangible benefits of time out from routine, high pressure, constant small but time consuming demands on a daily basis.

My sabbatical has been one of the richest and most productive periods of my university career but a sabbatical is also a significant challenge.

My partner and I, born and bred Scottish decided to locate back to the homeland for the duration of my R&S Leave. Despite having been back and forth many times in the decade we have lived in NZ, it was a shock to see, feel and live the impact of the austerity measures brought in by the UK government in the wake of the Global Economic Crisis. We had to fit ourselves back into the new milieu of our old neighbourhood; live the challenge of an overcrowded area with tensions between the dominant population and new immigrants from Eastern European countries. It was thrilling to be in Scotland at the time of the Commonwealth Games, an event which without doubt captured the nation, and for which Glasgow, the host city, put on its Sunday best for the duration of the event and showed the very best it has to offer in hospitality, good humour and excellent sportsmanship.

Astonishing too to be in a small country seeking its independence from the rest of the UK; to see the wholehearted re-engagement in politics and the political process across all ages from sixteen upwards, with an 85% turnout for the referendum vote. No matter that the YES campaign lost, the referendum itself changed politics not just in Scotland but across the whole of the UK.

Being interested in leadership in general, who are our role models, what characteristics do good leaders display, it has been a fascinating experience to watch leadership in action in all different contexts. Re-familiarising ourselves with the current state of political play in Scotland and across the UK, comparing how the UK is faring in comparison to cities in Europe has felt like a lifetime’s learning. However well one keeps up with the news not only at local level but also international events, it is a shock to the system to come back to the Northern Hemisphere and be so exposed to the horrors of world events which are reported on much more extensively here than in New Zealand. Such an experience of coming ‘home’ has re-enforced my understandings of cultural differences and nuances, and the shifting cultural psyche.

While one is liberated from routine while on sabbatical, the potential of and for learning is incalculable – it is lifewide, it is looking outside of the relatively safe haven of academia and our professional or discipline based knowledge and learning. It is akin to seeing life in the raw! A sabbatical period is time to see the world through different eyes.Just occasionally in life, an opportunity comes along that could not have been predicted but which will have lasting insights, impact, challenges and learnings and I was lucky enough to be offered such an opportunity. I had not long commenced my research and Study Leave when I was asked if I would consider locating to Saudi Arabia for a period of time to work at Princess Nora University (PNU) in Riyadh.

I had been to Saudi Arabia many times before but not to live life there, working, socializing and learning. It was an extraordinary opportunity albeit I appreciate not all women would necessarily think of this as an outstanding opportunity. My Dean and I agreed I could take on this consultancy role and that time spent at PNU would be added on to my research and Study Leave.

Living and working in Saudi Arabia gave me incredible insights into the status and the challenges for universities in Saudi Arabia. I learned so much more about Islam and the Islamic culture. I also learned that much of what we take to be and assume to be repression of women, is seen very differently by highly educated Saudi Arabian women, but I also did learn much about the dis-satisfaction of women regarding the right to vote, the right to drive and freedom of movement.

I learned a great deal about intercultural competence, what it really means – and I question whether or not we do a good enough job of supporting students and indeed staff in developing this complex skill or attribute.

By reading the English versions of newspapers in Saudi Arabia, I learned more about relations between countries and cultures in the Middle East. I could feel strongly the rigid hierarchy of power relations. I could begin to understand why it is so difficult for smooth political relations between the West and the Middle East.

I also saw up close and personal, the impacts of the financial squeeze on universities and how the Middle East is a magnet for the Education Business, not necessarily always in the best interests of Saudi institutions, often simply financial transactions. I made many friends in Saudi Arabia and feel greatly privileged to have been asked to support Princess Nora University, Saudi Arabia’s first and the world’s largest women only university, in its endeavour to set up a Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, and to support the University in strategies for building leadership capability and capacity.

I am now coming to the end of my sabbatical period and brace myself for re-entry into my university. Much will have changed, my roles and responsibilities are different, there will have been procedural changes, staff changes, budget cuts. But, I am also returning with a plan of action, much to offer my Dean and my Faculty.

Personally and professionally I am not in any doubt that I have grown. I hope that my learning, my publications, my tangible impact will be of value not only to the university, but also much more widely than that. In the less tangible and measurable aspects of sabbatical leave, I hope I will add value to the university, bring my enhanced sense of mindfulness and being mindful, and my global knowledge and understanding to bear on my work on leadership in higher education.

I have crossed boundaries again in my career having been a biochemist who changed career to academic developer and am now transitioning into leadership in higher education and what that means at institutional level. It is my challenge to blend together the discourses of leadership and higher education and contribute to a new narrative for a new era of higher education.

Personally, my batteries are re-charged. Family and friends have been visited. I have different perspectives on the world, more insight into the actual scale of the current challenges and what it will take to effect significant global change. I am enthused about returning to university life notwithstanding the challenges that might present.

I am grateful to the University of Auckland for the support provided for my Research and Study Leave. I wholeheartedly recommend sabbatical time and fully believe that the added value for the institution is significant with measurable and immeasurable components. From my viewpoint the lifelong and lifewide learning is a treat, a challenge and a privilege. The personal and professional development inherent in study leave is worth its weight in gold.

Professor Lorraine Stefani
Higher Education Strategic Engagement
Faculty of Education
University of Auckland, NZ

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NEW PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL LEARNING

11/6/2014

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This week I came across two blogs that provided me with new perspectives on social learning. The first was Julian Stodd's post on scaffolded social learning (1) in which he sets out to

balance the structure and defined outcomes of formal instructionally oriented learning with the collaborative, co-creative and 'sense making' functions of social contexts for learning in the manner depicted below.

Scaffolded social learning is built around two types of components: formal elements of learning shown as 'boxes' in which the learning is pre-planned and 'bubbles' of social activity in which learning is informal and emergent. At the boundary between each, there is a gateway.

The boxes embody experiences that are formally defined learning: maybe eLearning, classroom or open educational resources. The narrative in these spaces is defined by the designers and teachers who own the space. The bubbles are co-creative, community spaces, places where we can feed out questions, case studies, activities and exercises that are carried out over time and within communities or more participatory collectives(2). Here the narrative is created by the learner and co-created by the other active participants in the social space.

In scaffolded social learning the overall arrangement is defined by an overarching narrative developed and maintained by one or more social leaders who act as brokers and guides. They identify the need or interest and create the purpose, visualise and maintain the structure and facilitate the process through which learning emerges. They are the creators of the ecology for collaborative learning - another important concept in social learning (3).

I connected Julian's concept of scaffolded social learning to Jane Hart's idea of 'learning flows' (3). Jane argues that 'in the age of Facebook and Twitter, and Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) like Yammer and Jive (where at the heart lies an activity stream that is used for a continuous stream of knowledge exchange) – there is a place for a new learning framework; one that lies between the instructionally designed course and the unstructured knowledge sharing of teams, groups and communities. We call this a Learning Flow.'

A Learning Flow is a continuous steady stream of social micro-learning activities – accessible from the web and mobile devices. Its properties are:

·         continuous – ongoing (ie no end date)
·         steady – eg daily or weekly
·         micro-learning – short – ie taking no longer than 15-20 minutes to undertake
·         involve activity – like reading, watching or listening to something and doing something
·         social – that invite and encourage active participation and contribution
·         streams – that are organised and structured in the Flow in weekly themes
·         accessible from web and mobile devices – to ensure that learning can take place anywhere and at
anytime

For individuals, being present in a Learning Flow means having some help to navigate the turbulent waters of a fast flowing constant stream of (new) information and knowledge, retaining control over how and when they get involved, and how they fit it into their daily workload – autonomy is a key element of participation.

Learning Flows are suitable for:

Enterprise use – to provide ongoing updating of teams or groups
Educational use – to provide an extra dimension to academic subjects – probably alongside a

formal curriculum

Professional use - for generic topics of interest in areas like Marketing, Leadership, L&D, etc, where it is vital to keep up with new knowledge and practices.
Personal development use - topics of interest that are not directly related to work but are relevant to leading a more fulfilled and meaningful life and indirectly might enhance professional performance can be

Jane describes three types of Learning Flow to encourage short social learning experiences.

(1) NEWS FLOW provides a daily social-micro learning activity based on current news and resources from the Social Web. This is a useful way of encouraging a group of people to reflect on and discuss up-to-the-minute news. This type of Learning Flow is closest to the unstructured learning that takes place in activity streams, but it has the advantage that the participants are only subjected to one piece of news daily - so that the “signal has been separated from the noise” by the Learning Flow Guide.

(2) THEMED FLOW provides daily social micro-learning activities organized within weekly themes around a specific topic. This is a useful way for bringing together related activities in some logical sequence during the week, so that the Learning Guide can help the participants to “join the dots” between new ideas and resources.

(3) CIRCULAR FLOW is a rotating flow of a set of weekly themes (although activities within them may change). This Learning Flow is closest to the traditional course since it deals with a well defined body of knowledge, but it differs from a course in that content is used to support the social learning experience – rather than social interaction being added to content (as happens in many courses) there is a Guide rather than an Instructor, and there is more autonomy and choice for the user

It seems right that these ideas of scaffolded social learning and learning flows should be connected and integrated. What do you think?

Sources of ideas
1) Julian Stodd Scaffolded Social Learning posted 5 November 2014 http://julianstodd.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/scaffolded-social-learning/
2) Douglas Thomas and John Seeley Brown A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change
3) Norman Jackson 'The Concept of Learning Ecologies' in N. J. Jackson and G.B. Cooper (eds) Lifewide Learning, Education and Personal Development e-book Chapter A5 available on-line at http://www.lifewideebook.co.uk/conceptual.html
4) Jane Hart 'Beyond the Course: The Learning Flow – a new framework for the social learning era' posted 19 February 2014, http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2014/02/19/the-learning-flow/
5) Jane Hart 'Three Types of Learning Flow' posted 25 February 2014
http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2014/02/25/types-of-learning-flow/

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Disrupting universities

The Tangible and the Infinite: The Lifewide Learning Potential and benefit of a Career Sabbatical

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL LEARNING

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